Repost: Hall of Shame for Tax Dodgers

by Sandra Korn [Orignally posted July 24, 2012]

Two bits of news yesterday, sent to us by Alejandro Reuss: first, the New York Timesreports that the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which honors such greats as Willie Mays and Walter Johnson, has recently put a new jersey on display: that of the “Tax Dodgers.” The Tax Dodgers are a group of Occupy Wall Street affiliates who have used street theater and baseball imagery to satirize out the tax evasions of the ultra-rich. In this video, the Tax Dodgers (along with their cheerleaders, the Corporate Loopholes) sing “Take Me Out to the Tax Game”:

Take me out to the tax game.
Bail me out with the banks.
Buy me a bonus and tax rebates.
Never pay nuthin’ not fed’ral or state.
So it’s shoot, shoot, shoot for the loopholes.
It’s law, so you can’t complain.
For its one, two, three-trillion you’re out,
Since we rigged the game!

Meanwhile, the Guardianreports that the 0.001 percent may have evaded something like $21 trillion, or £13tn, by storing money in overseas tax havens, like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. The article points out, “Assuming the £13tn mountain of assets earned an average 3% a year for its owners, and governments were able to tax that income at 30%, it would generate a bumper £121bn in revenues.” (That’s more than $195 billion.) So, how do we fix the deficit? Tax the rich—and start by closing legal loopholes that allow them to sequester trillions overseas. These real-live Tax Dodgers don’t deserve to be in any Hall of Fame.